Doctor Who review: Arachnids in the UK – scary horror or campy fun?

The Doctor and her friends find something strange happening to the spiders of Sheffield in Arachnids in the UK.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Arachnids in the UK gave us an episode full of giant spiders. But was it quite as horrific as it should’ve been?

After such a deep and moving episode as Rosa, Doctor Who took a massive shift in genre with the very next episode, Arachnids in the UK. Now, this isn’t too surprising, as telling stories across a wide range of genres and styles is one of the things that Doctor Who does best.

Still, even by the show’s standards, this was a major change of tone. Particularly as Arachnids in the UK didn’t quite go in the direction that I expected. While a lot more focused on giant spiders than Kill the Moon was, this wasn’t quite as scary as I expected it to be. In some ways, it was considerably lighter. Especially with the real villain of the piece, Robertson.

However, aside from the “monster of the week” plot, we got more focus and exploration of the regular characters’ ordinary lives. Particularly from Yaz, as we got to meet her whole family in this episode.

We also got a real look at how Graham is dealing with his grief. In previous episodes, while Grace was often on his mind, especially during the quiet moments, he was usually distracted by his adventures. But in this episode, we saw what happened when he visited home. And it’s clear that the grief is still far too real for him.

So Arachnids in the UK was divided between light-hearted adventure and emotional character moments. Was it a combination that worked well? Let’s take a look at what the Doctor Who Watch team made of this episode.

Robertson was a pretty obvious parody of a certain president. But was he a little too obvious, at times?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Raphael Kiyani – Contributor

After last week’s weighty and emotional story, Arachnids in the UK provides us with a lighter approach. Giving us a popcorn flick in the form of a monster-romp, utilising both campiness and thrills. A riot to watch despite some poorer elements.

The story as a whole was a bit of fluff – but greatly entertaining fluff nonetheless. Arachnids in the UK certainly won’t be winning any awards, but it just about manages to balance its campier shades and the Halloween-esque spookiness.

Purely taken as monster-of-the-week schlock – it’s incredibly fun and it’s hard to not enjoy the adventure and mystery here. It can be so gloriously silly but macabre in equal measure. The constant back-and-forth around Sheffield and ensuing escapades around the hotel had me beaming and allowed for some great interaction between our heroes and supporting characters.

Our new “fam” or better put, “Team TARDIS” are becoming better to watch with each passing week with some cracking dialogue and chemistry between them. Arachnids in the UK doesn’t give us anything stand-out or must-watch but it does, however, sprinkle a few good character moments – adding greatly to the mood and character of the story.

Thirteen interacting in contemporary Sheffield without her post-regenerative mania, Graham and Ryan’s dealing with grief and the world they left behind. The introduction of Yasmin’s family was a nice touch too, evoking Russell T Davies’s down-to-earth familial drama.

The spiders

But what about the titular spiders themselves? They are genuinely creepy with some effective camerawork and CGI work bringing them to life. Taking a mundane concept and amplifying the scare factor is what Doctor Who has been consistently good at, and it shows in this episode.

The concept of animal mutation and eco-system imbalance was interesting too and felt, for the most part, realistic and scientifically sound, but it wasn’t explored as much as I would have liked. Whilst scary and even intimidating at times, I wish we saw the spiders killing more people – or at least capturing them.

The scene where a spider takes the assistant and takes him underground was a brilliantly dark scene. More of this being littered throughout the story would have greatly enhanced their menace. On the whole though, the mutant spiders were well-realised antagonists, despite their defeat being a little too open ended and anti-climactic for my liking.

Arachnids in the UK flirts with deeper themes, but fails to present them in a meaningful or coherent way. Issues such as environmentalism and cronyism felt hammy and tacked on.

Connected to this is the character of Robertson whom was a cheesy and lazy allegory for Donald Trump. Robertson descends into a complete caricature, so much so that I actually found the character really fun to watch. He was an addition that allowed the Doctor to exude her diametrically opposed value system also.

In conclusion, Arachnids in the UK is a fun blast of Doctor Who – being camp but also scary with bags full of charm and character. The threat, plot, message and conclusion all have issues but you’ll still leave the episode smiling.

Cobwebs and spiders featured heavily throughout Arachnids in the UK.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Luke Molloy – Contributor

Have they gone yet? A question I heard many men, women and children mutter through defensive pillows as the UK sat down to see Team TARDIS battle with everyone’s classic fear—spiders. The result was a hideous B-movie Halloween treat which proved that Chibnall’s era of the show is really enjoyable even when the cylinders are only half firing.

As always with Doctor Who, if the monsters are good, the episode usually follows—and Arachnids in the UK is no exception. I’m not a true arachnophobe—I can get a spider in a cup and chuck it out—but you wouldn’t have known that here. I was “eeeeing!” out loud and shimmering back in my chair when I saw the first one in the kitchen. And that was just the first one!

Then they seemed to just get larger and larger, growing to ludicrous amounts, until the seductively named Mother-spider leapt from the ceiling and legged it after Graham and Ryan. The spiders crawled with a sense of realism due to the brilliant CGI and each one seemed spookily individual. Additionally, the new time vortex CGI, with its multiple tunnels and alien colours was a thrilling peek into the world of space-travel. It was sensational.

My featured spider-of-the-week has to be the fellow that erupted from the bathtub and tucked into bodyguard Kevin. That sequence particularly was deliciously macabre. The spiders were the star of the show this week and hopefully this will begin an arsenal of terrifying monsters for the episodes ahead. To quote The Girl in the Fireplace:

"The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other."

The Doctor should be a crucial part of her show. But is that really happening in this series…?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The Doctor: a lack of crucial development?

And as the monsters started working…The Doctor stopped. In the premiere I praised Whittaker’s performance as the best part. Her performance here was still good (although I could do without the big arm-swing every time a door is opened), but the character has stalled. I feared that “Team TARDIS” would be too much and now it’s starting to show.

The Doctor hasn’t done anything new in four weeks. Her dialogue is restricted to talking jargon, talking silly or giving the audience a message. She doesn’t seem like the leader of the team or the one who can save the day—she still hasn’t really saved the day.

I feel like we’re seeing the same 30% of this Doctor over-and-over. Give her some scenes on her own! Give her scenes where she’s afraid or sad or angry or cares about something. I want to see her work with something new.

I anticipated “Team TARDIS” would restrict her moments with their share of airtime, but they’re also starting to make her look less interesting too. Ryan and Graham have really good stories playing out. Bradley Walsh especially, who was fantastic once again, has that powerful story of dealing with grief building throughout the series.

On the other hand, the Doctor has no story. There’s nowhere for her to be going, nothing for her to be doing—you get the feeling that she’s done when the episode ends, when you should be wondering about the adventures she’s on that you can’t see. If it wasn’t for Yaz (who is still hard to care about—family or no family), I’d say she was the least interesting part of “Team TARDIS” and that’s a problem that needs fixing quick.

Parts of the story were also left unexplained—the spider in the kitchen and the rest all over Sheffield—but I could overlook them in favour of the touching ending scene. Also, I can’t tell if the capturing of the spiders via “Stormzy” was an inspired resolution or a lazy rush to-the-finish, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

And that’s the perfect summary for this episode. Cracks in the plot and in the characterisation of the Doctor haunted me. Yet luckily, there were enough spiders in the cracks to make it an enjoyably ghoulish romp—one that will be remembered, thankfully, for the monsters.

4/5

Nb: The Next Time trailers are awful, too short and totally pointless as they tell you nothing. It would be better to just discard them.

Robertson – a funny parody or a one-dimensional disappointment?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

James Aggas – Site Expert

I’m honestly not sure what to make of Arachnids in the UK. There were many elements in this episode that I liked. But there were also other elements that I definitely didn’t.

First things first, let’s talk about what I enjoyed, starting with the spiders themselves. Once again, DNEG really got to show off just how great they really are. The spiders looked absolutely fantastic. It wasn’t just because of their size. It was mainly because of how natural and organic they looked.

Even the way they moved was impressive. You see giant spiders done in films before, but sometimes, while the CGI is convincing in appearance, they don’t move like spiders often do, scuttling along the floors. But these ones did, and it was a detail that added even more life to the creatures. Doctor Who fans know how much weaker a story can be when the spiders fail to convince, so I’m glad that wasn’t the case here.

Meeting the family

It was also great to meet Yasmin’s family, especially as Yaz has really needed some major character exploration since the first episode of the series. We did get some key exploration of her in Rosa, but it was great to see her home life really fleshed out.

The casting of Shobna Gulati as Yasmin’s mum Najia was a perfect choice, too. Najia comes across as nice, but more than a little bit nosy, too. Gulati is able to play both of those sides equally well while adding more to the character.

Speaking of casting, the fact that Chris Noth of Law & Order and Sex and the City fame looked like quite the catch for the series. So it’s kind of disappointing just how one-dimensional his character is.

I don’t mind slimy, corrupt villains in Doctor Who. They’re pretty common, especially in really political stories. The Pertwee era seemed to especially fond of them with stories such as Colony in Space or The Mutants.

However, Robertson wasn’t just a clear-cut villainous jerk. He was also a clear and obvious parody of a real life person, too. Now, this is the part where I say, “I’m not going to say his name, but it rhymes with ‘chump'”. Except, and this is the real joke of the episode, they literally state Trump’s name out loud. Just in case you had missed who they were trying to parody.

The episode’s final moments are a real highlight for Arachnids in the UK.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Politics in Doctor Who (and when it doesn’t quite work)

The explanation of the spiders also felt, well, a little too comic book-y. While it would be refreshing to have something Earth-based instead of aliens as the cause of the problem, toxic waste just seemed to be pushing it.

Now, this isn’t the first time that Doctor Who has done this kind of storyline. One of the biggest examples of a story all about protecting the environment would be The Green Death.

But that somehow felt backed up by a considerably stronger plot. And even though politics have often been obvious in Doctor Who, they were usually more subtle than what we got last night. Even Rosa was more subtle than the one-dimensional Trump parody we got with Robertson.

However, having said all of that, there are still two strong points in this episode that I haven’t mentioned yet. The first would be the scenes that focused on Graham’s grief. The more I watch of Bradley Walsh in this series, the clearer it becomes why he was cast in the show. This wasn’t just a bit of stunt casting on Chibnall’s or the BBC’s part. Walsh really is an incredible actor, and no scene has showcased that better than the scenes of Graham at home, trying really hard to hold back the grief.

The second last great point of this episode is the final scene. I didn’t just love the fact that the companions finally chose to travel with the Doctor of their own choice this time. I also love that they all have very natural reasons for joining her, too.

Overall, Arachnids in the UK might be my least favorite episode of Series Eleven yet. It’s not without it’s good points, especially when it comes to the regular characters. But I can’t help but think that it could’ve been so much more.

Do you agree with these reviews on Arachnids in the UK? Do you think it could’ve been improved? Or was it more suited to your tastes than previous episodes? Let us know in the comments below.